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One miner is still trapped under the rubble of the mine which collapsed due to a gas explosion. — DawnNewsTV

At least 16 miners were killed and six injured after a coalmine collapsed in Marwar area of Balochistan's Quetta district on Saturday, DG PDMA Muhammad Tariq said.

One labourer is reportedly still trapped under the rubble of the mine which collapsed due to a gas explosion and efforts are being made to rescue them.

The bodies of 16 miners trapped in the mine were retrieved during the rescue operation, while six labourers were recovered with injuries and shifted to the Civil Hospital in Quetta, DG PDMA told DawnNewsTV.

Deputy Commissioner Quetta Dr Farrukh Atique and other officials from the provincial disaster management authority reached the site of the incident and supervised rescue efforts.

Personnel of Frontier Corps, Levies and Quick Response Force were also on the spot to recover the trapped miners.

Most of the labourers involved in the incident belonged to the same village in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Shangla district, officials told Dawn.

According to the Pakistan Central Mines Labour Federation (PCMLF), between 100 and 200 labourers die on average in coalmine accidents every year. At least 11 miners died during two such incidents in mines of Darra Adam Khel and Jhelum last month.

Coal mining is considered much more hazardous than hard rock mining due to flat-lying rock strata, generally incompetent rock, leakage or explosion of poisonous gases and coal dust, collapsing of mine stopes or general mechanical errors from improperly used or malfunctioning mining equipment.

On DawnNews

Comments (7) Closed

Most Pakistani colmine workers working in very unsafe, dangerous and poor conditions.

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Dr. Salaria, Aamir Ahmad

May 05, 2018 07:35pm

What a great and grave tragedy?

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SHAHID SATTAR

May 05, 2018 09:50pm

Are we still running our mines as per our eighteenth century routine? What are the changes, if any, which have been adopted by the mines owners and lessees, have been improved for the safety and well being of the mining labourer? Or does the government's duty finishes just after the deceased person's body reaches his home town? The laws governing the system must be changed to suit today's working conditions around the world and conditions created to lessen the burden on the shoulders of the labourers involved.

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Khan

May 05, 2018 10:00pm

RIP. very sad incident.

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Alba

May 06, 2018 02:55am

Coal Mining is one of the world's most dangerous occupations. Men do it because there usually is no other work.

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Khan.P

May 06, 2018 03:26am

Oh, that's tragic.

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Amjad Durrani Engineer USA

May 06, 2018 04:27am

Very tragic and sad news occurring again during current year and that too with high toll of lives of miners.The gas explosion in coal mines occur mainly due to methane or dust ignition or both.Methane a by product of carbonization of coal as it ages,is let loose through the seam during mining process and finding a heat source like lantern or spark produced coal grinding process,gets ignited which thrust the coal dust to fly and catch fire causing second large explosion to occur.Usually large air circulation fans are used to dilute the methane concentration brought down to 5-15 percent in the coal mine & to reduce chances of coal dust catching fire,the coal surface is covered by spreading lime dust over it.From the repeated accidents happening in coal mines in Mach area,it is evident that there is laxity on part of Mining Directorate who are not carrying out mandatory inspections to make sure that measures to reduce methane concentration and dust inflammibilty procedures are in place.